Explaining the Theory-Practice Gap In Iranian Urban Design Projects Based on Communicative Theory

Referring to the concepts of communicative theory, urban design is introduced as an interdisciplinary knowledge that is involved in political and social struggles. So, it cannot play a neutral and purely scientific role in practice, due to direct interference in the interests of various economic and social groups. The purpose of this study is to identify the basic concepts of communicative theory and to examine the application of these concepts in urban design projects in Iran. Therefore, by examining the philosophical theories affecting the communicative theory, the basic concepts and how these concepts are applied in the process of urban design are set, in the form of a conceptual framework. The developed conceptual framework provides the basis for the analysis and evaluation of selected projects in the next step by using the directed qualitative content analysis method. The results show that by placing the most stages of the urban design process at a very low scale, the projects have been focused only on the technocratic aspects of the process, and the concepts of communicative theory such as power and its role in guiding process, empowerment, and acquaintance of the society with their interests and expectations, and how to participate and follow it up in the form of a process of social learning have been neglected. While communicative theory, as a missing link in Iranian urban design projects, with the reformulation of the relationship between space, designer, people, and the institution of power, considers urban design as a product of processes in which competing discourses, based on communicative action, maximize their understanding scope by accepting multiple interests and configure space in a participatory process. Accordingly, by ignoring the evolution of theoretical knowledge evolution in practice, the knowledge generated in practice will be subsequently incapable of developing and modifying theoretical knowledge and consequently increase the theory-practice gap.